How to Use Home Remedies to Get Rid of Head Lice and Their Eggs

When it comes to treating head lice, some people swear by chemical treatments and other people highly prefer using home remedies they can make themselves.

Not only because these home remedies are much cheaper than commercial products, but also because they know what they put on their kids’ heads.

This way there is much less risk of having to deal with undesirable side-effects.

Home remedies for head lice are most of the time grandma’s recipes, but most of them are proven solutions, sometimes even by scientific trials and a few studies.

It is true that there are very few studies that have been conducted to evaluate the efficiency of homemade remedies, because let’s be honest: who would finance such studies? It’s just not profitable to spend money to know if olive oil or vinegar are effective against lice.

It’s much more profitable to spend money to show that commercial lice shampoos have some efficacy, even if it’s not 100%. And in absence of studies, the medical community doesn’t trust natural remedies and doesn’t consider them as effective.

However, lice remedies that use readily available ingredients have one thing in common: they have no side-effects for most of them, and they can fight both head lice and their eggs. The other major advantage of such home treatments is their low cost.

Why do many parents prefer home remedies for treating head lice?

Anti-lice shampoos used to be very effective a few decades ago but are now not so powerful anymore, especially because head lice have developed some resistance in many Western countries including United States, Canada, France, and United Kingdom.

But the big drawback of pesticide products are the side effects they can have. After all, what they contain are pesticides (insecticides, because they kill insects), and when we know how bad for our health pesticides can be, we’d most often rather stay away from them.

Pesticides on our food have been shown to cause illness, and putting pesticides on our scalp is not safer, as our scalp absorbs about 50% of any substance put on it.

If you think that these shampoos and lotions that contain chemicals are safe, take a look at Jesse’s story here, and think twice before you use them. Thousands of parents are using them every day worldwide, and many have no issue at all, but caution should be the rule.

If you are looking for a 100% risk-free alternative to using an OTC lice shampoo on your child’s head, the simplest home remedy would be to just comb his hair or pick the lice and nits out using a lice comb or tweezers.

This would have to be done over several days and would thus be very time consuming. But it has been shown scientifically to be the only solution that works 100% (apart from head shaving, which is not recommended for obvious psychological reasons).

Basically it is important to understand that if you want to be successful in your battle against these parasites, you’ll need to find the right home remedies for killing adult head lice and nymphs, and other remedies for getting rid of nits.

It is crucial to keep in mind thatthe same remedy will not always work for both head lice and their eggs at the same time.

A safe and easier option to get rid of both lice AND their eggs is this safe, non-toxic shampoo:

Home remedies for getting rid of adults and nymphs

In order to kill adult head lice and their nymphs (the baby lice), you can use home remedies that contain suffocating substances. This is for example oil, petroleum jelly, or any substance that has some viscosity.

Why can it work? Because suffocating substances will prevent lice from breathing, and once coated in the substance, they will die asphyxiated.

Of course, like any other natural remedy, this one will not be 100% effective and there is no guarantee that it will work for you, but many people have had good results and it may be worth a try.

In a 2004 study, among 6 remedies including olive oil, vinegar, butter and mayonnaise, petroleum jelly was the most effective of all, and had some ability to kill eggs, too.

Another option is to combine a substance like oil with essential oils such as lavender or tea tree oil. Tea tree oil contains terpenoides, which act pretty much like pesticides on the nervous system of the louse. However, you should know that just like pesticide shampoos, tea tree oil can have undesirable side-effects and should be used with caution.

What about essential oils on their own?

A few drops of lavender essential oil behind the ears make head lice flee… If this solution can work, be careful to not use it as a real treatment though. Its effectiveness will depend on each child, but also on the degree of the current infestation.

There are dozens of formulations based on essential oils of many plants, but in practice the majority of these essential oils are only effective if their application is combined with other substances like olive oil and with adequate combing of the hair.

There are some essential oils that are effective on their own, this is the case of tea tree oil, but it should be applied with great care, as mentioned previously.

Home remedies for eliminating lice eggs

One of the best ways to kill live lice eggs, also called nits, is to dissolve their protective shell. They will for sure die if they are no longer protected by their exoskeleton. Doing so will also help to comb them out because it will unglue the shell from the hair shaft.

To dissolve the shell of nits, you can use products that contain acid, such as vinegar or lemon juice.

Then, you need to comb nits out until there are no more left in the hair. This is an unavoidable step of the treatment and should never be overlooked.

And eventually, a great way to not have to deal with lice is to prevent them from infesting your child. One of the safest shampoos, conditioners and hair sprays on the market is this one:

11 Comments

James on December 21, 2011 at 3:34 am

Easy, inexpensive remedy that completely eliminated lice after 3 treatments. Mix equal parts of 91% rubbing alcohol and white vinegar into a spray bottle. Add 1 drop of tea tree oil for every fluid ounce of mixture. 3-4 ounces will be sufficient to treat a head of long hair. Thoroughly wet hair with mixture, and comb out in sections with metal nit comb. After every few strokes, rinse the comb in a container of water to see what is coming out of the hair and to track progress. Wash and condition hair afterwards with coconut based products. Repeat treatment every other day to break the reproduction cycle until lice are gone.

audrey on March 7, 2012 at 1:04 am

i have been searching for any way i can,to take control over this.so as i read this treatment i have began to get hopes up! i surely do hope for this to work. i am a single mother of 3,an take care of my 80 year old mother,we are on a low fix income. we live in a appartment with only coin op. laundrey room,to wash all the beddings/towels etc. is a large extra exspence of its own. i can’t keep going in circles with this. so i wish to thank you in advance for shareing your treatment!

sincerly; audrey

MARCY on March 16, 2012 at 10:19 am

My daughter and i have been battling lice for two months now. We spent hundreds on treatments, but nothing seems to work. BUT i found a way, get some vinegar and cover their hair in it, put a shower cap over their head and let it stay for about 2 hours, but watch out for the vinegar getting in their eyes. Then wash their hair out with Palmolive dish washing liquid, then starting combing, comb comb comb, and comb some more. Once you are sure you got all those nasty bugs out, blow dry and straighten the hair, and just keep repeating every day. Also make sure you wash the bed lining, and pillow cases.

Deb on July 24, 2016 at 5:45 pm

Thank you! This helps a lot!

nigel on January 17, 2017 at 9:17 pm

After our third lice infestation in a year, I decided to go with the olive oil route instead of more pesticides. I used a large syringe for the oil in order to really coat every strand of my 6 year old’s massive amount of long hair, then put a swim cap over it. We left it for 3 hours. The adults and nymphs were all dead. No more pesticides here! I also did the vinegar afterwards to loosen the eggs. Even if I didn’t get all the nits, at least I now have something non-toxic that really kills the egg layers.

B on February 28, 2017 at 7:05 pm

My daughters got lice this year for the second time. I tried the OTC medicines at the local drug store, i tried the electric lice removing combs… nothing seemed to get it under control. Then i ran across this website, I tried the vinegar saturation one night (apple cider vinegar on hair for 15-30 minutes) and the lemon saturation the next (REAL lemon juice squeezed from the fruit for 30 mins). We have almost got this thing beat.

D on July 2, 2017 at 11:30 am

Thank you so very much! I have been battling these little monsters for well over a month now and am sick of my daughter scratching a few days after thinking they are gone. Maybe I can now get rid of them once and for all!

Mandy on September 16, 2018 at 5:57 am

Well I read a lot , researched a lot and this is what worked for us. My daughter has thick waist long hair. First we coated the hair with a cup or two of mayonnaise. Then wrapped her head in plastic then a towel to keep a tight seal. We waited 5 hours. Then rinsed it out. Saw a lot of dead bugs just drop off in the sink. Then soaked her hair in white distilled vinegar for 20 minutes. Then without rinsing used a metal lice comb and removed the eggs, or nits, they came off easily, plus mote dead bugs. This took a few hours because her hair is so thick. After that we soaked her hair in vinegar again for 20 minutes, then she shampooed and conditioned with coconut milk shampoo and conditioner with a few drops of rosemary, peppermint and tea tree oil mixed in . Lusterous hair NO BUGS, NO NITS! We will repeat in 7 days to be cautious.

Kimber on September 24, 2018 at 9:07 pm

Thanks for all the info. I am happy to have alternative remedies to conquer these pests. I nor my children have ever seen or been exposed to lice so this is what it is. A pest for all people. The tea tree oil seems the best. Look forward to killing this problem.

Brit on December 28, 2018 at 7:35 pm

I worked at all children’s hospital for 10 years in pediatric icu. We always used mayonaise, a shower cap, and a lice comb on the children. They had medical conditions that made them super senative to chemicals as well as lice treatments can be neuro toxic. We cleaned the beds changed all linens and used straight mayo under a showercap for about 6 to eight hours depending on the amount of lice and nits followed by combing washing and conditioning. It worked every time. I wouldn’t allow any chemicals in my children’s hair after seeing the effects on simple store bought pesticides on small children’s nervous systems. Just one nurses experience after 20 years of the mayo method on all races of hair. After reading the site it probably provides both the vinegar and the oil in the mayo that suffocates lice and loosens nits. Good luck.

Disclaimer: This site is designed for informational purposes only and is not engaged in rendering medical advice or professional services. If you feel that you have a health issue, you should seek the advice of your Physician or Health Care Practitioner.You should always be very careful when dealing with head lice in children.